


Drove Through Ghosts

by Mikkal



Series: Thunder, Lightning, and the Storm [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: ASL, American Sign Language, Asexual Character, Asexual!Barry, Barry is the Flash, Emotions, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Low Self-Worth, Multi, OT3 Westhallen, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, different kind of soulmates, eventually, extended timeline, surprisingly canon compliant?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-25
Updated: 2015-06-17
Packaged: 2018-04-01 04:29:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4005889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikkal/pseuds/Mikkal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eddie never thought his soulmark would connect him to a gorgeous man and he never thought that man's soulmark would connect to an equally gorgeous woman or that hers would connect to Eddie in one big circle.</p><p>And he definitely never expected his world to both end and begin in one year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Here’s the thing: Eddie loves coffee. He wouldn’t be able to make it through the day without coffee. While he can make due with Starbucks if need be (and if he’s _that_ desperate), he finds CC Jitters to be the best. There are only about a hundred Jitters in the country and he’s been to three others, but Central City Jitters is the _absolute best._

And, trust him, it’s _not_ onlybecause of the gorgeous barista who always serves coffee with a smile and is quick to confront any rough customer who thinks they can get away with treating her co-workers like they’re less than people. Psht, please, he has better standards than mooning over a woman clearly out of his league.

            This is a lie, he as no better standards.

            It gets even worse when he walks in one day to see a lanky guy leaning against the counter, talking to her (Her name’s Iris and she loves German Shepherds, she’s fond of raspberry mochas and can’t go anywhere without some sort of music playing. Another reason why he likes this coffee shop, _everyone_ takes a moment to talk to customers). The guy is stretched out, like he’s modeling for some unseen camera, and he’s smiling at her; the drumming of his fingers on the counter top that tells him the guy’s nervous despite looking so assured in his leaned position.

            And she’s smiling at him too, eyes bright like he’s the guiding star in her life and him looking at her like she’s hung the moon.

            Eddie has to take a moment, some how out of breath. Iris is gorgeous, this is a known fact, and this guy is so attractive he wonders if he really is a model. (Do they model together? That has to be a thing.) Seeing them together though, is breathtaking. It’s like the Seven Wonders of the World, and plus some, all put in one little moment. He kind of wishes he could take a picture, but that’s entirely inappropriate.

            But they aren’t together, that much is obvious. There’s a little too much room between them to indicate anything other than an amazingly close friendship. Surprisingly enough, he almost feels disappointed.

            “Hi, Eddie!” Iris says, her smile bright as always. She slides over his drink—a large dark roast coffee with room for a little bit of milk and a whole lot of sugar—and her smile seems to get brighter. “I saw you walking in. It’s on the house.” She nudges her friend. He jerks back, flailing a bit and his face turning red, and Eddie’s amused and surprised find out he’d been _staring_ at Eddie with wide eyes.

            “Thanks, Iris,” he says. He glances at the guy one more time before wandering over to a table, one ear open to their conversation like the eavesdropper that he his. He can’t help it, it’s hard to take his eyes off two beautiful people and he’s curious of why he hasn’t seen this guy in the entire month he’s been coming to Jitters. If he and Iris are the close friends he thinks they are, he would’ve seen the guy before by now.

            They go back to talking, the guy shifting his position so he’s no longer stretched out (a damn shame if there ever is one). They’re close together, but their words travel fairly well since it’s a Sunday morning and the café traffic is pretty slow.

            Eddie blinks, his mug halfway to his mouth, when he actually hears some of what they’re saying. They’re…They’re speaking _French._

Which, _holy shit,_ just amps up the attractiveness of _both_ of them by, like, a thousand millihelens each. And they already had more than a handful of millihelens on their side anyway.

            The fact that they’re speaking another language makes him decide he isn’t going to eavesdrop even though he knows French as well (pays to have an old-fashioned French grandmother). Usually, when people have a second language like that and they speak it in public it’s because they want to keep the subject a secret.

So, he takes a drink of his coffee…then promptly chokes on it when he hears Iris say his name.

He glances over out of the corner of his eye to see the guy shush her frantically, his face turning red. Iris pokes him in the shoulder and grins, but she looks over to him nervously. Eddie pretends he didn’t hear anything, just to see what they’ll do next.

They go back to talking in French; the guy sounds like he’s complaining about a co-worker who flirts way too often and if he weren’t such a dick he’d probably find someone to go out with. Iris reaches out and takes his hand, her thumb brushing over his knuckles. And, wow, maybe Eddie was wrong about them not being together? That’s a very intimate gesture right there.

Then he hears his name again and he zeros in on the words: the guy is talking about Iris’ soulmark and somehow Eddie’s involved in that. He frowns, not really seeing how that’s possible. The first words she ever said to him aren’t anywhere on his body. (‘ _Ah,_ House of Leaves _. My best friend loves that book_.’) And she would’ve said something if his first words were on her somewhere (probably her wrist, she never takes off that leather bracelet it looks like). (‘ _Do you serve coffee?’_ )

Eddie closes his book ( _The Martian_ this time around) and takes his coffee with him as he wanders over to the couple. “I don’t mean to sound rude,” he says, his heart beating a little fast. “But I do understand French.”

Iris’ eyes widen and the guy turns so red that Eddie’s reminded strongly of a strawberry. He rubs the back of his neck, glancing up at Eddie through his eyelashes with a sheepish expression. “ _Désolé_?”

Eddie’s chest sparks and his jaw drops. His heart goes from pumping fast to feeling like a hummingbird’s and that it’s going to pop out of his chest at any given second. He reaches up and pulls the collar of his shirt down to show the two of them the one word written just under his collarbone.

His soulmate chokes on air. “Holy shit.” He looks over to Iris. “ _Holy shit,_ Iris.”

“Okay, _okay_ ,” she says, sounding a little hysterical. “That explains so much.”

Eddie can only stare at them in confusion. “Explains what?”

“Saira!” she calls back. “I’m going to lunch now. See you in half an hour.”

“Don’t get lost!”

Iris yanks off her apron and grabs Eddie’s arm. “Come on, we’ve got a lot to talk about.”

He can only let her guide him out of the shop, too confused and dazed to protest (and, besides, she’s leading him to the bistro that has excellent omelets. He’s not usually a breakfast guy, but he could make today an exception.). The guy—whose name he _still doesn’t know_ —is following them, tripping at least twice over his own feet.

“I’m Eddie, by the way,” he calls over his shoulder.

“Barry,” is the reply. “Barry Allen.”

He smiles, teeth and all. “Nice to meet you, Barry.” Guess his assessment of a strawberry was pretty good, especially since it matches so well with his name.

There’s about ten minutes of awkward, but not uncomfortable, silence as they’re seated and their orders are taken. Eddie fiddles with his book and belatedly realises he’s still holding the Jitters coffee mug in his hand.

“Er, I think I might have stolen this?” he points out.

Iris’ eyebrows furrow and her lips quirk in a confused frown before she laughs. “Oh, it’s okay. I can just take it back when we’re done. It’s my fault for dragging you out like that.”

“Speaking of,” Eddie says. “Why?” He glances at Barry who’s bending a straw and twisting it with nervous (and very long) fingers. “You freaked out when you saw my soulmark.”

“That’s because your first words aren’t on me,” Barry says. Eddie feels like he’s been punched in the gut. He waves a hand toward Iris. “I’ve got her first words to me on my shoulder blade.”

Even though it’s still hard to breathe, hard to think (What? Why? _How?)_ , he still asks, “What are they?”

Barry chuckles under his breath. “’Red is so overrated,’” he says with a slight mocking tone, like he’s said this a hundred times to tease Iris. She punches him lightly in the shoulder. “ _Ow_ , menace.”

She rolls her eyes, grinning. “Ignore him,” she tells Eddie.

Eddie takes a deep breath and put his hands palm down on the table, spreading his fingers and hoping the contact will ground this not-so-good feeling his his chest. “I don’t understand.”

She shrugs. “Neither do we,” she says. “His soulmark are my words. Your soulmark is his words. And my soulmark are your words.”

His stomach swoops. “You mean—?” Oh God, his face starts to burn. That means ‘Do you serve coffee?’ is permanently on Iris. That had definitely _not_ been his greatest moment—he asked a freaking _coffee shop_ if they served _coffee_!

Iris reaches out and pats his hand twice before leaving it there, her skin warm on his. “It’s okay,” she says with a gentle smile. “I thought it was adorable.”

“She really did,” Barry adds. “She wouldn’t stop gushing about you the minute she saw me.” He smiles at him. “And I don’t blame her.” The tips of his ears redden (it occurs to Eddie that Barry is an easy blusher).

Eddie breathes through his nose and laughs. “You don’t know how long I agonized over that when I got to work. I was so embarrassed.” At least they thought it was cute.

There’s a pause when the waitress drops off their food.

“How is this suppose to work?” Eddie asks after they’ve started on their meals. “I mean, I don’t remember ever hearing about someone having two soulmates.”

“I don’t think that’s what this is exactly,” Iris musses, licking her fork. Eddie has to force himself not to stare so he wrenches his gaze from her to see Barry staring at her too. Their eyes meet and Barry grins...then licks his spoon. Eddie nearly has a heart attack right then and there. “It’s not like I have both your words on my wrist, I just have yours. It goes three ways. This makes it almost seem as if we’re all equal in the relationship almost.” She shrugs again. “I don’t know, I’m just guessing.”

“I could talk to Caitlin about it,” Barry offers. “She did her thesis on soulmarks.”

She points her fork at him. “Yes! You do that.” She checks her watch. “When do you go to work today?”

“One.”

“And you?” Iris asks. “When do you head to work?”

Eddie shakes his head. “I don’t. I work every other Sunday.” He takes a sip of his tea. “Where do you work?” he asks Barry.

“STAR Labs,” he says, his eyes lighting up in obvious excitement. “I’m a theoretical physicist working on the particle accelerator.”

“That explains why I haven’t seen you at Jitters before today,” Eddie muses. He must be so busy over there. “In fact, it’s because of your particle accelerator thing that I managed to get my transfer papers signed.” Barry gives him a confused look so he elaborates. “I’m a detective for the CCPD. I transferred from Keystone two months ago.” With the influx of Central City residents due to the STAR Labs’ accelerator and the low number of employees at the police department and even lower number of students in the academy, the CCPD requested for transfers from other cities. Eddie had already put in his request about three months before and it was signed nearly five minutes after his chief got the memo.

Iris makes a strangled noise in the back of her throat. “ _You’re_ ‘Detective Pretty Boy?’”

Barry snorts so hard he knocks his knee against the underside of the table. He covers his face with his hand and tries—and fails—to muffle his laughter.

“I’m _what_ now?” Eddie’s heard that name before floating around the bullpen. It had been said with derision and usually accompanied with a scoff during his early days, but he some how managed to turn it into a fond nickname with only one or two officers still thinking he’s a smug bastard (and those officers are also transfers, more recent ones, so they don’t matter). “How did you hear that?”

“My dad,” she says, “is Joe West.”

“Oohh, you’re Iris _West_ ,” he says. He squints at her and she smiles prettily. “Now that I think about it, I’ve seen you around the department. You never stay for long.”

She nods. “Usually just to drop off food for him.”

This makes so much sense. Both Detective West and him work Homicides and Robberies, but there’s enough of both to go around they don’t really cross paths too often. They’ve maybe worked five cases together, and since he’s not Detective West’s partner their desks are definitely not next to each other and he’s always running around looking for lab results and files.

“Anyway,” Barry says, sounding breathless. “Why’d you want to know our schedules?”

“It’s useless now,” she says grumpily. “Since I know you won’t leave STARS until at least midnight. So, tomorrow, we should have dinner together.” She hesitates. “Unless you have work, or you don’t want to, Eddie?”

“No, no,” he assures quickly. “I’d love to go to dinner with the both of you.” He gives them the brightest grin he can. (Iris looks a little thrown and Barry looks dazed, is his smile that good?) “After all, we’re soulmates, right? I know that doesn’t make it an obligation, but I’m actually looking forward to this.”

Barry nods. “It’s a date.” He stands and stretches before digging out enough to cover his bill. “I better head out. Traffic sucks at this time a day and I swear the taxi drivers in this city are out to get me.” He puts a hand on Eddie’s shoulder, suddenly looking nervous. He seems to have this strange talent of going from self-assured to adorably nervous. His hand is warm through Eddie’s shirt and he has to resist the urge to lean into him. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Then he’s dashing out of the bistro, his long legs taking him out with only a few steps. Eddie watches him go, enjoying the lean lines of his back his button down shirt accentuates.

Iris laughs. “This is definitely the oddest day I’ve ever encountered.” She pauses, thinking. “Unless you count the day I visited STAR Labs and a baby monkey was on the loose, but that was a year ago.”

Eddie leans in. “Oh, do tell,” he says.

“Well, it was more of a baby gorilla than a monkey…”

Iris ends up taking a forty minute break instead of thirty, and Eddie finds himself not feeling too upset about that.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess I should specify that I've got writer's block for _Not Every Love Burns_ and _Through the Fire_ and this is my attempt to pay attention to something else then come back to those two. There should be only two more chapters after this one, maybe one actually. Depends.

**ii.**

Looking up at STAR Labs is both a very humbling experience and makes him feel very, very small in a not-good way. Yes, it’s just one building out of twenty-eight STAR Labs in the country (plus six more scattered out internationally) and they’re not the only lab doing amazing things with science and technology (there’s Queen, Wayne, Palmer, Kord, Alva, Stagg, Mercury in the mix too), but they’re the only ones who are going to prove that the theoretical is true in just nine short months.

            Eddie’s been on the public tour of the facility only once in the five months he’s lived in Central, and that had been before he knew Barry and Caitlin and Ronnie—y’know, actual employees and certified geniuses. But now he has a guest pass, take out in his hand, and he’s staring at the man behind the desk, feeling butterflies in his stomach.

            It’s not about seeing Barry—the three of them have been unofficially dating for two months now as a matter of fact—it’s about the fact that only one other person knows about their unique relationship (a one Dr. Caitlin Snow) and he’s not sure how much Barry has told his coworkers about him.

            The foyer security guard clears his throat and Eddie jerks in surprise. He meets the man’s eyes and is surprised to see a gentle smile on his face.

            “It’s a little intimidating, I know,” he says. “But you’ll get use to it. Dr. Allen talks about you and Iris often enough that I can say that.”

            Eddie feels his face warm. Barry talks about them? He takes a deep breath, closing his eyes to steel his nerves, and when he opens them Ronnie is standing a few feet away, grinning.

            “Hey, man, Barry was worried you got lost,” he says.

            He childishly wrinkles his nose at him. “Ha, he’s more likely to get lost than me.”

            Ronnie laughs as he turns around, gesturing for Eddie to follow. “Don’t I know it. The dude’s smart, but sometimes he’s off in his own little world.”

            They pass by the last tour group of the night, a few teenagers giggling behind their hands. There are four elevators and two doors to stairways; Ronnie leads him to the elevator to the far right and stands inside expectantly.

            They have to scan their passes—Ronnie with a more permanent one and Eddie with his ‘only good for a day’ pass. He tightens his grip on the handle of the plastic bag and tries to not fiddle with the hem of his jacket. He’s exhausted from work, but Barry had mentioned this morning that his shift at STAR Labs was a killer this time, apparently they were getting a new addition to the team and they all had to re-work a few equations together, and Eddie wanted to have dinner with him. Even though the launch of the accelerator is more than half a year away everyone’s frantically gearing up for it.

            The cortex of STAR Labs is organized chaos, that much is obvious. There’s different groups clustered together, scattered around the room. He spots Barry easily by the way he’s leaning on a table, all stretched out and solid lines. He’s talking to a shorter man wearing a ‘Keep Calm and Han Shot First’ tee-shirt under a suit jacket. He’s borderline professional/casual, especially when he fidgets and buttons the top button so it doesn’t actually look like a graphic tee-shirt anymore.

            Caitlin is there too, and so is, ugh, Hartley Rathaway. Judging by Barry’s over exaggerated sneer and the way the new guy is back to fiddling with the button on his jacket, Hartley just said something incredibly rude and dick-like.

            Totally not unusual.

            “Eddie! Hey!” Barry heaves himself up from his leaned position, his shirt riding up a bit to expose his hipbones. If Eddie didn’t know any better he’d swear the younger man does it on purpose. “I’d like you to meet Cisco Ramon, the nest addition to our engineering team.”

            “Nice to meet you,” Eddie says, shifting the take out bag to his other hand and putting as much sincerity into his words as possible. Hartley is a major dick to even the best people. “Eddie Thawne.”

            Cisco smiles and shakes his hand. “Likewise, man.” He glances back, probably at Hartley who Caitlin looks like she’s giving a talking to. “So far Rathaway’s been the worse person I’ve met here.”

            Barry snorts. “And he’s going to stay in that number one slot. I’ve worked here two years and the nicest he’s been is to the test mice we have on the third floor.” He shifts closer to Eddie, his hand coming up to rest on the small of his back. “For now, though, I leave you in the very capable hands of our lead structural engineer, Ronnie.”

            Eddie sort of, kind of misses the rest of the conversation; he’s too focused on the warm hand on his back. His nerves tingle and it feels like his hair is standing on end (it’s not, he’s checked before), like there’s lightning in the air. Every time the three of them touched it was like there were literal sparks. Caitlin says that’s normal, it’s a soulmate thing and that’s how she felt every time she and Ronnie touched during their first year together, and that it will fade over time.

            Which is a little disappointing, to be honest. Eddie _likes_ the sparks.

            There aren’t many places to have a private dinner in STAR Labs. The floors for every thing else STAR Labs does are never quiet, let alone the floors dedicated to particle accelerator and its teams, even at ten-thirty at night. But if they tuck themselves in a corner in the cafeteria and pretend no one’s around, it almost seems perfect.

            Barry immediately digs into the Chinese food he brought while Eddie focuses on picking the onions from his fried rice (he likes the flavor they give, but can’t actually get himself to eat them). It takes him a minute to realise he can’t hear Barry messing with his food anymore and he looks up to see him gazing at Eddie with the most intense look on his face.

            “What?”

            “Three months,” he says abruptly. Eddie raises an eyebrow at him. Barry leans forward, his security pass dragging in his white rice. “Do you want to know a secret?”

            Eddie grins. “Of course.”

            “This has been the best three months of my life,” he says seriously. “I thought the day Iris told me red was overrated was the best day—I’d finally found my soulmate, why wouldn’t it be? But something felt wrong, off, missing. The day the two of us met you.” He jabs his chopsticks in Eddie’s direction. “Made my life so much better. We got the first words bond, not any other, but I swear all the colours in the world got so much brighter with the both of you in it.”

            He feels his face grow warm. “I thought you were a scientist, not a poet,” he mumbles.

            Barry laughs, throwing his head back and almost dropping his chopsticks (Eddie is and forever will be jealous of anyone who can use chopsticks). “I can be both!”

            Eddie chuckles along with him, enjoying this moment. Three months of taking a secret relationship slow has its ups and downs. The best up is the fact that they can learn so many things about each other without worrying about anything else getting in the way. A down is that no one else knows about how much they’re in love (and he’s pretty sure Detective West will shoot both him and Barry when he finds out they’re both dating his little girl).

 

 

**iii.**

Joe West is not a stupid man (if he were, he’d really have to question the CCPD’s hiring methods) and he _knows_ his daughter. He raised her for God’s Sake, raised her as a single father for seventeen years. So he knows when she’s hiding something—some times she can be a great secret keeper, but when it’s a big one and she so desperately wants to tell someone, anyone, everyone, she can barely contain herself. She reminds him of those German Shepherds she loves so much when they get excited, all bright-eyed and bouncy.

            And she’s been keeping this secret for five months, maybe longer because he’s not use to her keeping big secrets from him and it took him awhile to notice the signs.

            The first sign is she stopped coming home so often. His daughter’s a busy woman, he knows that better than anyone but her, what with school and her full time job as the lead barista for Jitters, but she always came home at night. Now she’s gone all the time and it’s not just with friends, she tells him if she’s out with friends and usually gives names. Now she just goes ‘I was hanging out with friends at [insert place her].’ She probably doesn’t even realise she’s doing it (or not doing it, as the case maybe).

            The second thing he noticed is she started coming around the CCPD more often, not just to drop off a meal for him like the amazing person that she is, but other things that he can never spot her doing. She just disappears, but the desk sergeant confirmed that she hadn’t left the one time he asked because he had something to give her but couldn’t find her.

            It’s all very mysterious and he’s wondering when the dam’s going to break.

            Turns out the dam’s breaking today and it’s in the form of a dinner in a very popular restaurant. (He’s legitimately worried she picked a popular restaurant because it’s a heavily trafficked public place and she doesn’t want him to even think about making a scene).

            Iris is already there when he arrives and she hugs him tightly before they both side down. She’s quiet and nervous as the waitress sets down their drinks and Iris tells her they’ll need another minute to order, they were waiting for the rest of their group. Joe raises an eyebrow at that.

            “Daddy, you love me, right?” Iris goes for straight away, putting on her cutesy ‘I’m Daddy’s Little Girl Buy Me a Pony’ act. He’s seen it a dozen times and he usually falls for it.

            “Of course.”

            She puts her hands on the table, palms down and fingers splayed, in a nervous gesture he’s never seen her use before. She usually fiddled with her hair when she’s nervous. “I met my soulmate,” she blurts out.

            Joe wants to jump for joy, but manages to contain himself. “That’s great!” The rush of relief and happiness he feels is dimmed when he realises she doesn’t look as happy as him. In fact, she looks almost worried…or even scared. “What’s wrong? Is it another woman? Iris, you know I don’t care—.”

            “It’s not that,” she cuts in quickly. “It’s not that,” she repeats quieter. Her back straightens and her gaze goes over his shoulder and he turns to see Detective Thawne walking up, looking nervous. “Dad, you know Eddie, right?”

            “Detective West,” the man says, sticking out a hand to shake.

            He’s almost tempted not to take it, but he’s not that rude and the guy looks he might puke. “Detective Thawne,” he says in the same tone, standing and shaking his hand. He’s got a firm grip and he meets Joe’s eyes, that wins him some points. He turns to his daughter. “This is your soulmate?”

            She nods. “Yes…”

            “You could do worse,” he concedes. For a while he thought her middle/high school best friend (Barry Allen) would be the one, but they drifted apart when they reached college and they never said anything about soulmates. Eddie Thawne doesn’t seem like a bad soulmate to have, he works hard, is thorough with his cases, and is unbelievably kind to each and every victim they talk to. “I approve.”

            There’s a little bit of relief in both their expressions, but they’re still nervous and he can’t possibly think of why. Eddie takes a seat on Iris’ left and they both look up at him expectantly. He sighs and sits back down.

            “What’s wrong?”

            “I am _so_ sorry I’m late. Cisco made something explode. It was cool, but very, very messy. I think he did it on purpose to piss Hartley off, not that I’m complaining about that.”

            Joe turns around (once again) to (once again) see a familiar face. Barry Allen is there, looking like he did years ago, except this time he’s got a STAR Labs security pass still clipped to his shirt and he looks beyond exhausted. Of course he would be working on the particle accelerator, there’s literally nothing else Joe can think of that he would be working on. He had a feeling back in the day the kid would get into either something like that or forensics. (His bet had been more towards forensics considering he knew a little bit how he felt about his mom’s murder.)

            He looks from Barry (who is frozen on the spot, having realised Joe is sitting _right there)_ to Iris and Eddie, who stare at him with equally wide eyes. He sighs, dragging a hand down his face, before standing up and shaking Barry’s hand.

            “It’s been awhile, Barry,” he says politely.

            There’s a slight tremor to his handshake, but Barry meets his eyes. “It has, Detective West. It’s good to see you again.”

            “I didn’t know you were back,” he says. “Iris hasn’t mentioned it. When did arrive in Central?”

            Barry rubs the back of his neck. “Uh, two and a half years ago?”

            “ _What?_ Why didn’t you tell me?” he demands to Iris. To Barry he demands: “Why didn’t you at least come to dinner?”

            “I’m sorry!” Barry says, raises his hands defensively. “I only came back because Harrison Wells offered me the job before I even got out of school and I’ve been busy with the accelerator since. I didn’t get a chance to see even Iris until I year after I got here.”

            Joe eyes him suspiciously before nodding. “I will accept that,” he says, half-teasingly. “If only you visit more often.”

            He clears his throat awkward and his gaze goes over Joe’s shoulder to no doubt look at Eddie and Iris. “Something tells me that won’t be a problem?” He walks around to take a seat on Iris’ right side.

            Joe continues standing, eyeing the three of them critically. He sighs again. “Don’t tell me, the three of you are soulmates?”

            Iris nods, looking like she’s close to tears. “Don’t me made,” she says softly.

            “Why would I be mad?” he asks, genuine confusion in his voice. “Did you think I would be mad because instead of one person it’s two? Iris, the more you feel loved the happier I am. If the three of you love each other and make each other feel like they’re the most important person in the world, how can I stand in the way of that? It’s your life, not mine, I have no right to dictate, only approve—and I approve. You’re soulmates, right?” The three of them nod. “You’re happy?” Nods. “Then don’t worry about anyone else.”

            Iris lurches out of her seat and rushes him into a tight hug, her face pressed against his shoulder. “Thank you,” she whispers.

            He doesn’t tell her ‘you’re welcome’ or ‘no problem’ or ‘of course’ or ‘don’t thank me,’ instead he hugs her just as tight until the waitress comes back for Eddie and Barry’s drinks. The two of them part, both of them wiping their eyes.

            After the waitress takes their food order, Joe sits back in his seat to get a good look at the trio and is happy about what he sees. They’re obviously very nervous, either still because Eddie and Barry are doing the ‘meet the parents’ thing or because they’re a trio is a situation that’s usually (not always, though) a duo and they’re worried about being in public. They’re sitting close, though, Eddie’s arm on the back of Iris’ chair and Barry’s fingers are tangled with Iris’. Despite the nervousness about the situation, they look _comfortable_ with each other.

            “So, tell me how you met,” he says, indicating Eddie and Iris. “And whose first words are on my daughter?” Eddie chokes and turns bright red at that, and Joe has to laugh.


	3. Chapter 3

            **iv.**

Eddie shifts and snuffles against this pillow before realising his pillow is moving, minute shakes that makes his eyebrows wrinkle in confusion. He turns and opens his eyes to be greeted by Iris’ beautiful, laughing smile, her arm under his head and elbow bent so she can play with his hair. He smiles back, shuffling closer to press against her side.

            “Good morning,” she says softly.

            He hums. “’morning. What time is it?”

            “Eleven o’clock,” she replies, much to his shock. She must have felt him stiffen because she continues to say, “To be fair, you didn’t come home ‘til three this morning. Rough night?”

            Eddie closes his eyes, willing himself not to think about it too much. “Botched robbery,” he mumbles. “The family was killed. Mother, father, and two little boys.” Why did it always have to be children? Families?

            “You got them, though?”

            He nods, smiling. “Yeah, we got them,” he confirms. He hums again when she leans over to press a kiss to his hair. “Where’s Barry? I thought he didn’t have to work today?” A rare thing: all three of them having a day off on the same day. She suddenly freezes, stiffening. He opens his eyes and looks up at her, then he heaves himself up from his comfortable position when she sees the nervous expression on her face. “What is it?”

            Iris sighs and sits up as well, rubbing her eyes. “I don’t really know how to put this,” she admits slowly. “I only know this about Barry because people are mean and I know he didn’t want to tell you so soon.”

            He presses his lips together as his stomach drops. They’ve been dating for six months now, what could be so bad that six months is ‘too soon?’ “Iris, what’s wrong?”

            “…there was a riot at Iron Heights at about six o’clock this morning,” she says. “Barry’s dad was caught in the cross-fire and was injured. He doesn’t… _do well_ when his dad gets hurt so he’s been there since seven. He didn’t want to wake you up—you looked pretty terrible.”

            His stomach had dropped and now it rolls. He wants to say ‘Barry’s dad is a prison guard?’ but he _knows_ that’s not it. He swallows and says instead: “Is his dad going to be okay?”

            She smiles prettily at him, it’s small and worried but not less radiant. “He will be. Barry’s just being a mother hen.” She shifts so she’s mirroring his position, cross-legged and facing him, touching his knees and making his nerves light up. “You’ve told us about your childhood,” she says and he can’t help but grimace. Her grip on his knees tightens. “And mine wasn’t too exciting, that is, until I moved here and met Barry. He was thirteen when we met, and two years earlier his dad murdered his mom right in front of him...”

            Eddie gaps at her, eyes wide. Barry—sweet, goofy Barry with a smile as bright as a July summer sun and who laughed so hard at the stupidest jokes he gets everyone laughing with him—had been witness to such a traumatizing thing at such a young age? To say he’s surprised is a complete understatement. Why would Barry visit and mother hen his father if he murdered his mother?

            She shakes her head. “Barry doesn’t believe Henry did it,” she says, reading his mind. “He says a man in yellow lightning came into his house like a storm and killed his mom.” She looks at him expectantly, hesitantly, like she’s hoping he’ll agree that Barry’s not crazy and worried he’s going to get up and leave—soulmates or not.

            “That’s why he’s chose to be a theoretical physicist,” he muses. “And why he’s working on the particle accelerator.” Barry’s explained why the accelerator is so important to the way we understand the universe and what it can do often enough that Eddie swears he has the whole spiel memorized by now. “No one believed him so he’s out trying to prove the impossible. It makes sense.”

            Iris sighs in relief. “So you’re not leaving?”

            “Of course not!” Eddie moves closer, swinging his legs over her lap so his feet are on either side of her hips and he crosses his ankles behind her back. “To be honest, if his mom was killed recently and he said it was a man in a ball of lightning I’d be less inclined to believe. But this happened almost seventeen years ago and he’s stuck with that since he was a child with no alterations, right?”

            She nods. “To the best of my knowledge.”

            “Then, right now, there’s more reason to believe him than not.” He cups her face and kisses her chastely. “Have you met his dad?” She shakes her head. “Do you think he’d be upset if we went to Iron Heights to drag him home for proper sleep and we just _happened_ to meet Henry Allen?”

            Iris laughs softly, shrugging. “I love you,” she says, not for the first time but it still makes his spine tingle like static shocks. “You’re absolutely amazing.”

            “Oh, am I?” He kisses her again, pressing deeper. “You should tell me that again, gorgeous.”

            She trails her hands up his bare stomach, making his muscles jump. “Absolutely amazing,” she breathes. “Barry has been so scared to tell you.”

            “How did you find out?” he asks, pulling away slightly.

            “Like three days after we moved here, there was a block party my dad dragged me to.” She smiles at the memory, drawing circles on his hips with her thumb. “Barry was a foster kid at the time, apparently troubled by the way everyone talked about him. When I met him I was confused because he seemed nice, unbearably sad, but very kind. He didn’t even get mad when I gave him a purple pen instead of his red one. The adults at the block party were complaining about how a murder brought down the housing market in our area and that they didn’t feel comfortable with the son of a murderer in the same classes as their children.”

            “Ew,” Eddie says, wrinkling his nose. He knows how bad people can be—through work and his own life. “Let me guess, you told him ‘red is so overrated’ when you gave him the purple one and made no mention of his family when you became friends with him?

            She grins, puffing out her chest. “Oh definitely. He was so confused and we had a pretty emotional talk about it before he left the first time.” At Eddie’s confused look she elaborates with, “He was a ‘troubled’ foster kid, remember? At the end of eighth grade he got moved to a foster home in Keystone for six months before being placed in a different home in Central for another year then moved to a different one still in Central. This last family promised to keep him until he graduated high school, but didn’t adopt him.”

            He can’t imagine how that must have felt. His mom loves him almost to the point of smothering and his dad, while a little distant, had been surprisingly encouraging at his plans to become a detective instead of a politician. He can’t imagine his mom being murdered and his dad being imprisoned for it then being bounced around foster homes labeled as a ‘troubled’ kid and know that, because of his history, no one will ever want him to become a permanent part of their family.

            That might explain Barry’s attitude towards their relationship. Sometimes he’s overly affectionate, while other he’s surprisingly distant, he goes from confident to nervous in the blink of an eye. If he went through a life of disbelief and a series of families he knows looked down on him for his trauma, then, yeah, he would wonder if their relationship is true, if their love is real.

            Eddie curls his finger over her cheek, seeing understanding in her eyes. He kisses her again. “Thank you for telling me,” he says, lips centimeters from hers. “I would’ve liked it if Barry had told me, but I completely understand.”

            “Good,” she murmurs. She kisses him once more before patting his side. “We better get ready and dressed if we want to surprise Barry at Iron Heights.”

            “Yes, ma’am.”

 

         **v.**

“I have my assignment for launch night,” Eddie announces. Well, not _announce_ per say since everyone but Iris is enraptured by the terrible singing happening up on the stage of this little bar. Iris goes from watching Barry and Caitlin giggle together like children as they wait their turn to looking at Eddie, an eyebrow raised expectantly.

            They were the only two not already drunk (and not really planning on getting drunk, they are the DDs for the night), this night is more for the STAR Labs crew and their attempt to soothe their fraying nerves. The accelerator is to launch in two months and everyone’s already freaking out.

            Eddie has never felt more like a duck and her ducklings until this moment, especially when Cisco laughs so hard he almost falls right off his stool and Iris has to catch him. She makes sure he’s settled before turning her attention back to Eddie.

            He grins at her, taking a swig of soda. “I’m going to be security in the main foyer where the presentations and announcements will be. There’s too many threats towards the team and the accelerator for comfort. There’s going to be ten of us for the foyer and I don’t know how many for the cortex or even the rest of the building.”

            “Awesome.” Her hand is still on Cisco’s shoulder as he starts cheering for the singing to end, calling Catlin and Barry’s names in a sort of a chant. Ronnie screams Caitlin’s name loud enough people around them are startled to wide-eyed silence. “The CCPN gave me a press pass. I have to shadow Mason around all night, but I’ll be there too.” She wrinkles her nose. “I know it’s only been three weeks, but come on, I’m an intern, not someone’s wayward child.”

            He pats her hand comfortingly, slightly teasing. “I believe in you. You’ll find a way to write about something ground breaking while Mason gets stuck interviewing rich celebrities who are there for the fact that it’s famous, not because they know what’s going on.”

            She rolls her eyes grinning. They’re distracted from each other by the crowd cheering as the singers drunkenly stumbled off stage and Caitlin and Barry came up, their arms linked together and flushed red.

            Eddie sits forward eagerly in his seat. He doesn’t know about Caitlin’s talents, but he _knows_ Barry can sing. The man is a Grade A morning person and can be found at the ass crack of dawn in the kitchen singing Broadway and off-Broadway songs. He’s more interested in seeing if his talents still work when he’s drunk off his head.

            Iris laughs and pats his knee. “You’re going to love this.”

            Caitlin starts singing and everyone lets out a laugh, and she’s laughing along too, completely enamored with having fun. Iris cringes exaggeratedly, but throws her arms up in a cheer along with Cisco. Eddies claps his hand, laughing hard enough tears come to his eyes. It’s incredible to see the normally straight-faced Dr. Snow act so loose.

            Barry clasps the microphone tight in his hands, like he’s using it to keep him from falling over, and starts singing. It’s loud, almost too loud like he doesn’t have volume control, but he still sounds just as good as he does at eight o’clock (or even three o’clock) in the morning making pancakes.

            The surprise comes from the fact that he’s singing so loudly, normally he’s the quiet kind of singer, soft words just under his breath or humming while he’s working on something in public. Eddie wants to take a picture of this—flushed face, bright eyes, and a wide smile that could send people to their knees—take a picture and keep it forever.

            His lines are over and Caitlin picks up again. Barry closes his eyes and starts swinging his hips, turning in a loose circle and throwing his hands in the air on a particularly enthusiastic part of the song. When it’s his turn he throws out his arm to Eddie and Iris, the spotlight going from the singers to them. Eddie squints in the light, but Iris cheers and blows a kiss in Barry’s direction.

            When the song’s over, they cling to each other once again and stumble off the stage to wolf-whistles and cheers. Barry laughs and waves at his adoring fans, Caitlin seems to have sober up a bit because now she’s avoiding everyone’s eyes.

            Ronnie launches himself at his fiancée, almost bowling her over. She laughs and hugs him, letting him pepper kisses on her face. Barry throws his arms over Iris and Eddie’s shoulders, leaning forward and dragging them down.

            “That was amazing, Bar,” Eddie says. His cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

            “I know!” he says happily. He reaches over for his beer, but Iris moves it away. He pouts at her, ducking his head to look up at her from under his eyelashes. “ _Iris,”_ he whines.

            “None for you,” she says, patting his hand before moving a glass of water closer. “Drink some water and see how you feel after.” He presses close, nosing her temple and kissing her cheek, and she laughs, shoving him away to sway more against Eddie. “Drink.”

            Barry takes the water and starts sipping it slowly, not too far gone to forget chugging it would be a bad idea. He turns to Eddie, most of his weight against him. “You’d let me drink alcohol, wouldn’t you?”

            Eddie can’t help but feel amused. He runs his hand through his boyfriend’s hair, Barry closing his eyes and leaning into the touch. “I’m going to side with Iris on this one,” he says, foregoing the fact that he usually sides with Iris. She’s the most sensible out of the three of them…most of the time. (okay, some of the time, but don’t tell her he said that) . “I think it’s time for us to all head home.”

            Cisco’s lost his energy and is slouching against the bar, cheek mushed against his hand and slowly sliding down. Caitlin’s using Ronnie as a pillow and he’s teetering on the edge of his stool. Barry whines again, inarticulate words that mean nothing and make him sound more like a confused puppy than a grown man.

            They all pile into Eddie’s car even though there is definitely no room and he’s not entirely sure when or how he agreed to this. Cisco insists on being dropped off at his place, through and above Caitlin and Iris’ protests. He claims he has someone waiting for him who is more than willing to take care of him, and, sure enough, the light in this apartment is on and there’s a shadow moving at the window.

            Caitlin and Ronnie are staying at their friend’s place and Ronnie gets him lost twice before Caitlin belts out the address for Iris to put it into her phone. Eddie waits for them to make it through the doorway of the house before driving off.

            He glances in the rearview mirror to see Barry sprawled out in the backseat, his head bouncing lightly against the door. He’s too tall to be comfortable, but he’s half-asleep anyway with half-lidded eyes and his neck lolling. Eddie smiles at the sight.

            Iris reaches between them and tangles their fingers together, rubbing her thumb on his knuckles. She lifts their conjoined hands and kisses his fingers. His breathing hitches and she smirks at him.

            “No fair.”

            “Oh, _very_ fair.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the shortest chapter I've ever posted for my multi-chapter stories. It was suppose to be a two/three part-er like the other chapters (minus the first, but that was 2k words long), but this part felt like it should stand on its own. So this means, instead of this chapter being the last chapter, next chapter is.

**vi.**

Barry stares at the numbers as they fluctuate and the whole room rumbles. This isn’t right. The particle accelerator is suppose to be stable all the way through turning it on and fifty years from now. _That was the plan._

            There’s a loud bang that makes him flinch and he watches in horror as the liquid in everyone’s wine glasses shift then float into the air like the gravity’s been turned off. His lungs seize and his face feels clammy, unable to push the memory of his fish tank doing the _exact same thing_ seventeen years ago. What is this? What the fuck is going on?

Cisco and Ronnie go dashing out the room even against Caitlin’s protests, the room rumbles again causing equipment to come crashing down. Barry dashes to one of the monitors, hoping to see if he can tweak an equation to make this stop, to help in anyway. He’s not an engineer, structural or otherwise—his specialty is theoretical—he doesn’t know if just punching in some numbers will help, but he has to try _something._

Instead of a rumble this time, the whole building shakes like an earthquake has struck. Caitlin swears and runs out of the room, no doubt going to the pipeline despite Hartley trying to call her back. The other man is paler than normal, his eyes wide in fear, and it looks like he’s trying to get the cameras down in the pipeline to work again. Barry faintly wonders if he and Cisco really thought they were being subtle.

The hairs on the back of his neck stand on end and he suddenly feels cold. His shoulder burns, panic climbing up his throat. _Iris. Eddie._ They’re here, in STAR Labs, down where the structure, while pretty solid, is not made to withstand particles colliding together, let alone particles colliding together and potentially rupturing.

He glances over to see Dr. Wells staring at him; a shiver goes down his spine at the uncharacteristically dark look in his mentor’s eyes. When he first got the letter in the mail telling him he’d been accepted on scholarship to the school of his choice, as funded by the Tess Morgan Scholarship for Promising Minds, he nearly had a heart attack; doubly so when Dr. Wells came to his school a year before he graduated and practically scouted him from the second he stepped on campus.

Ever since he accepted the position and the chance to work on the accelerator, Dr. Wells has been with him every step of the way, coaxing him to think harder and push himself to and past his limitations. The only other person he spent so much time with had been Hartley, and that is one of the reasons why they didn’t like each other very much. That, and Hartley is a dick and started the whole rivalry.

The dark look fades and the older man nods, as if giving Barry permission for his unasked request. Barry takes one last look at the fluctuating numbers, outcomes running a jumbled mess in his head, before he turns heel and takes off. Several people run past him, employees, guests, and officers of the CCPD alike, but he doesn’t comprehend any of them. The only thoughts on his mind are his soulmates.

There’s a strange energy in the air, like ozone and lightning. His fingers tingle and his heart pounds. He makes it to the reception hall in time to see Eddie ushering people out the front doors and turning back to grab a little girl to shove her into her mom’s arms. He doesn’t leave, though, just charges deeper into the panicking crowd, helping when he can.

He can’t find Iris and for a moment all he knows is terror. Barry grabs a guest’s arm as they try to run past him in the opposite direction of what they’re supposed to go and shoves her toward the front door. He runs further into the room, directing people the right way and shouting assurances over the loud dim. Apparently he’s more recognizable than he thought, he had been pretty sure no one saw him on stage behind Dr. Wells in the line up of the main team.

His knees go weak in relief when he spots Iris trying to coax a few teenagers from under a table, their eyes wide in fear. She’s crouching down, ruining her dress but she doesn’t care, with a hand out to the closest one. She smiles brightly when it’s taken and she more-or-less yanks him out. Barry runs over to help budge the remaining teens and Eddie shows up to help push them out the doors.

There is less of a crowd now, but people are screaming as the building gives a mighty lurch, pieces of the ceiling raining down. Iris grabs his arm in a vice grip, her face streaked with dust.

“What’s going on?” Eddie shouts, his hair’s a mess and his black suit is more of a dark grey now. “What happened?”

He feels like he wants to cry. “I don’t know,” he says, reaching out for him. Eddie lets him tangle their fingers together and the urge to cry increases now that his soulmates are _right here_ and _all right._ “I don’t know,” he repeats. “The accelerator’s going supernova. We have to get everyone out of here. Cisco and Ronnie—.” He lets out a small, unwanted sob. “They’re trying to turn it off. It’s not going to work.”

Iris’ expression is solid and determined as she kisses him and presses their foreheads together, for once she doesn’t have to stand on her tip-toes with the high heels she’s wearing. “Be careful,” she says, like the world isn’t falling down around them and Barry’s only going off to do something mundane. “I love you.”

His breathing hitches and he closes his eyes. “I love you too,” he murmurs. She lets go of him and disappears through the crowd. Barry turns towards Eddie, his eyes stinging. Eddie wraps him up in his arms carefully. “I love you,” he says.

“I’m so sorry,” Eddie replies. “I know how much you worked on this.” He presses a kiss to his forehead then his lips. “I love you too.” Then he’s gone as well, waving his badge in the air.

Barry takes a deep breath and goes after a reporter who looks frozen in terror, staring up at the skylight like he’s expecting it to shatter at any moment. To be fair, it’s amazing the glass has held up for this long to begin with. He takes the reporter by the arm and leads him towards the front doors, mumbling comforting words and statistics that he’s not sure the man understands.

He manages to get three more people moving before there’s a loud _boom!_ and every liquid from spilled glasses rises from the ground, twisting in the air. Barry glances up to the skylight, a bright flash of yellow filling the night sky. A long column of light shoots out from the center of the building, feeding into the storm clouds forming. Goose pimples rise on his arms and static fills the air.

“Barry!”

He turns to see Iris shouting his name, Eddie holding onto her arm like he’s keeping her from toward him, but looking like he’s seconds away from doing the same thing. They’re at the door and he lifts one foot to move forward when a cry of ‘mommy!’ catches his attention. A little girl, at little huddled up on the stage next to the podium and crying.

Barry takes one last look at his soulmates, squares his shoulders, and runs toward the little girl. He’s halfway there when there’s a sudden spike of energy and ozone in the air, the sound of glass shattering and Iris screaming, pain, then _nothing._

 

_He dreams of thunder and lightning and a storm._


	5. Chapter 5

**vii.**

Iris pauses mid-type when Linda sets a coffee down to her right. She continues with the sentence as her co-worker hooks her ankle around Gary’s chair and drags it over to sit.

            “How’s the arm?”

            Iris waits until she’s finished the sentence and has had a sip of free coffee before she answers. “Still can’t feel it.” She’d wiggle her fingers but the order from her brain won’t connect to the nerves of her sling-ed arm. It’s just limp and useless. “And before you ask: no, Eddie still can’t talk and, yes, he’s still pissed about it.” Her own smile feels strained and bitter even as Linda chuckles, none of that bitterness or negative feelings are towards her though.

            “I’m sorry,” she says knowingly. “I’ve got something for Barry, though. See me before you go, yeah?” At Iris’ nod she pushes Gary’s chair back to where it belongs and heads back to her desk.

She doesn’t go back to work straight away. Instead she sits back, her coffee in her working hand, and stares at her useless one. The second Barry had been struck by that lightning bolt she couldn’t feel it, like an electrical shock had gone through her system then nothing. Eddie had tried to scream Barry’s name, but nothing came out.

It hadn’t been until everything had calmed down that they realised their soulmarks no longer said words, they were big smears of ink. Like they were just pen and someone licked their thumb and brushed it over the words. Barry’s was the same.

Well, not really _was_ , is. Barry’s is still the same. They’re all still the same. Just like Iris still can’t move or feel her arm, Eddie still can’t talk, and Barry’s still in a freakin’ coma. It’s all the same as it was nine months ago. She jumps when a hand touches her back, shocking her from her thoughts, and then laughs softly when she realises its Eddie. He gives her a cheeky grin before stealing Gary’s chair.

{ _I swear you’ve gotten better at sneaking}_ she types out. She knows how to Sign, but long sentences with one hand is cumbersome and it’s just a stark reminder that she can’t use one of her arms.

His fingers move deftly to shape out [ _Good. All the better to scare you with_.]

{ _loser_.}

[ _menace_ ]

She sticks her tongue out at him, grinning. She could talk, actually voice her words, but it feels weird when he can’t. They’re incredibly lucky Eddie already knew a little ASL due to a cousin in Opal City who is both deaf and close to the family, or else they would’ve never gotten this far in only nine months with their time divided between work and STAR Labs. The work load at both their jobs had increased after the accelerator exploded, Eddie had to help with recovery and made statements when FEMA rolled in since he was there and she’d already been hired for her close connection to the CCPD and STAR Labs and her article load increased with everything going on.

Sometimes she gets really excited because, _hey!_ They know ASL and would’ve Barry just _love_ to learn? Then it hits her that, not, he can’t because he’s still in a coma that even Caitlin isn’t sure he’ll come out of. And if he does, she’s not sure he’ll come out of it without some serve and permanent brain damage. Just the thought of that makes her terrified.

Eddie taps her wrist with two fingers and she looks up to see his eyebrows furrowed in concern. [ _You okay?]_

She sets down her coffee to nod her fist in a { _yes_ }. Iris drags her hand down her face and checks the clock. { _How about we get out of here and head to STAR?_ } They won’t be able to talk in the car, but she feels cooped up even in the open space of the CCPN and wants to see Barry.

[ _Berry?_ ]

She shakes her head as she closes her laptop and shoves it into her bag. With her computer away and her hand occupied she has no choice but to actually say, “No, nothing new. Linda just as something for him and I really want to see him.”

[ _Oh._ ]

Iris. crowds him a bit, suddenly feeling the urge to be close. He grins and press his hands open palmed on her sides, pulling her even closer. She smiles back, tugging on his tie to make him bend at the neck so she can kiss him lightly.

{ _Blue_ ,} she signs, four fingers up and pressed together, her thumb tucked against her palm facing him, and she twists her hand at the elbow twice.

His smile gets bigger. [ _Rainbow._ ]

“Come on,” she says. She goes to grab her bag only to have Eddie take it before she can even touch it, slinging it over his shoulder. She rolls her eyes, but doesn’t bother denying him. It’s easier for him to carry it anyway.

Linda greets Eddie with a bright ‘hey!’ and tosses him a small notebook he catches neatly. “That’s for when you’re worried someone else knows ASL and you want to gossip. And this—!” She pulls out a thick white book with a flourish. “I remember him saying he hadn’t read the second one yet and that’s an absolute tragedy. The _carnotaurus_ are the best part. I figured you could, I don’t know, read it to him?”

It’s a leather bound combination copy of _Jurassic Park_ and _The Lost World._ To be completely honest, with the whirlwind of these nine months have been, she completely forgot about the first time Barry and Linda met and their hour-long fangirl about the movies and the first book. She traces the _T-rex_ on the cover with her thumb.

“Sorry it took so long,” Linda rushes to say. The pause must have been too long for comfort. “But I wanted to find a nice copy. Barnes & Noble sold them a few years ago, but I guess they stopped? I looked around for a few months before I decided to just order it online. I guess I’d been hoping he’d be awake by now, huh?”

Iris has never seen Linda Park babble before. It’s kind of a disturbing sight. She smiles brightly to calm her down. “It’s perfect, Linda. We’re heading over there now so I’ll read a little bit of it to him tonight. Thank you.”

Eddie touches the pads of his fingers to his chin and brings his hand out and down with his palm facing up, [ _Thank you_.]

Linda gives them a smaller, sort of sad smile before burying herself back in her work. Eddie takes the book from her as well and tucks it under his arm, swooping his other arm out towards the door in a grand gesture. She resists the urge to giggle and heads outside to her car. She can’t really drive with one arm, okay, well she can, but her dad would rather she didn’t and Caitlin suggested that she shouldn’t since she doesn’t know the extent to either of their strange injuries are.

It was Dr. Wells who made the suggestion that their injuries were connected to Barry’s coma and while that’s a slightly ridiculous thought, it also kind of makes sense.

Anyway, Eddie drops her bag in the back seat and gets in the drivers seat, handing over the book when she sits down. She holds it on her lap, tapping her fingers on the cover in the beat Barry does when he’s nervous. It’s different than the one he does when he’s bored; the bored taps have a slower, deliberate pattern, usually a Lady Gaga song or that weird four-beat tap from Doctor Who.

Eddie leans over to plug in his iPod and flips through songs until he finds the one he’s looking for. ‘ _Twenty-five years and my life is still trying to get up that great big hill of hope for a destination and I realised quickly when I kne—’_

“You know, I’m pretty sure going through your iPod to find something to say what you’re asking is just as bad as Signing while you’re driving,” she says, but she’s grinning. “And, really? 4 Non-blondes? There isn’t another song out there asking ‘what’s going on?”

He shrugs, laughing soundlessly. Her heart clenches at the sight.

“I’m worried the longer Barry stays out,” she admits after turning down the volume so the song is just faint white noise, “the higher the chance is that he’ll never wake up. Caitlin can’t see color anymore, what’s going to happen to us?”

He frowns, presses his lips together in a thin line, and shrugs. He grabs the iPod again and finds a song. ‘ _People look to me and say, is the end near, when is the final day? What’s the future of mankind? How do I know, I got—.”_ She grabs the device from him, probably harsher than intended.

“ _I Don’t Know_ by Ozzy Osbourne isn’t an answer,” she says, frustrated.

Eddie shrugs again and quickly brings his hands up to whack the top of his left index finger with the bottom of his right in a [ _I can’t._ ] and then, sadly, [ _I know_.]

She lets out a huff of breath and drags her hand down her face. “I know, I’m sorry.” Annoyed and frustrated tears burn her eyes and she scrubs at them. “I’m really sorry.”

He reaches over to brush his thumb over her cheek. She looks over to see him smiling, but with tears in his eyes as well. She grabs his hand and presses a kiss to his fingers, watching him take a sharp breath.

The rest of the ride to STAR Labs is in comfortable silence, her frustration melting away. They pull into the employees only parking garage in the back and take the elevator up to the cortex, Eddie holding her bag once more and _Jurassic Park_ tight between her arm and her chest.

It’s the same as usual when they enter the Cortex, Dr. Wells is no where to be seen, Caitlin is typing something out on her tablet, Barry’s laying on the hospital bed with wires galore and the heart monitor showing a faster than normal rhythm, and Cisco is humming to _Bad Romance_ with a Twizzler hanging in his mouth.

“How’s he doing?” Iris asks.

Caitlin’s head jerks up and she squints at them before setting aside her tablet. “Same as normal. How are you guys doing?”

Eddie squeezes her hand and he signs out [ _Alright_.]

She gestures for them to sit down and does her daily inspection of them: twisting Iris’ wrist and bending her elbow along with the standard questions of ‘can you feel that?’ and ‘does that hurt?’ and to Eddie she presses against his neck and inspects his throat.

“Any word from Hartley?” Iris asks Cisco quietly while Caitlin pays attention to Eddie.

He shakes his head, looking all of a sudden sad. “No. I mean, I know he’s still alive, my mark is still black, but he hasn’t contacted me or even Caitlin.” She looks at the Doppler effect soul mark that is definitely still black and not red. “I don’t know why.”

She pats his shoulder. “We’ll figure it out, don’t worry.

The song changes to _Poker Face_ and Iris wanders over to Barry’s bed. She brushes her fingers through his hair and leans down to kiss his forehead. He feels warm, yet Caitlin ruled out a fever months ago. There’s a sharp point of static where her lips meet his skin and the tips of her fingers tingle beyond the feeling of a soul bond. It’s been the same the past eight months, but it still surprises her.

“Please wake up,” she murmurs. “We miss you.”

Eddie comes up behind her, pressing a hand to the small of her back and poking Barry’s shoulder with his other hand. He pokes him twice more before kissing him over top the lipstick mark she left behind, the static visible. He smears the color away with a thumb.

“Linda got you _The Lost World_ to read,” she says, holding up the book like he could see it. “Wanna read some of it?” Eddie pulls up a chair for her and she sits down, him sitting in the other one he brought. Cisco perches on the desk holding the monitors and Caitlin sits at the stool where her microscope is.

She gets halfway through the first sentence when the heart monitor suddenly spikes and Barry’s surging up with an almighty gasp of air. Iris faintly hears Cisco yelp ‘holy shit!’ and Caitlin say into a microphone ‘Dr. Wells, he’s up!’ The book drops from her lap as she jumps to her feet, reaching out for him as he doubles over. It takes her a moment to realise that the sling’s getting in the way, that she’s grabbing him with _both hands_.

Iris looks over to Eddie, her eyes wide. Could it—could Dr. Wells actually be right? Eddie opens his mouth and ‘Barry!’ has to be the most beautiful thing she’s ever heard. Tears are streaming down her cheeks as Barry coughs. Eddie braces his other side.

“Barry?” he says again, his voice rough and wobbly. She can’t tell if it’s from nine months of nonuse or from the tears streaking down his face. “Barry, can you hear us?”

He nods, gripping Eddie’s wrist tightly. “Yeah,” he says. He looks up them with those beautiful green eyes she thought she’d never see again. “Yeah, I can hear you.”

She laughs loudly and kisses him soundly, pulling away a long time later so Eddie can kiss him before he’s had the chance to breath properly.

 

**viii.**

“What do you mean you ran into a wall?” Iris shouts. “Are you talking about _that_ wall, _right there_ , with the giant _dent_ in it?”

            Eddie has to hold back a laugh as Barry looks up at her through his eyelashes, looking sheepish. When he nods and Iris groans he doesn’t bother holding it back anymore, he just laughs and laughs, kind of enjoying the sounds coming out of his mouth. It’s a joy to be able to talk again.

            [ _How_?] he asks before he realises what he’s doing. He shakes his head and says, out loud, “How?”

            Barry grins at him and, much to his surprise, signs :: _Speed._ ::

            “What?” Iris says. “What do you mean ‘speed?’”

            “I have no idea,” he says. “I was jogging around the hallways, taking a look at the damage.” He looks sad for a split second. “Then everything just kind of slowed down and _wham!_ I’ve hit a wall hard enough to leave a dent. I had a bruise too, but it faded about an hour ago.”

            Barry continues with the explanation of the energy that possibly released in the atmosphere the night the particle accelerator went off and that those energies probably fueled the storm clouds, then the lightning bolt that struck him.

            “It’s probably why you couldn’t use your arm and why you couldn’t talk,” he says. “It’s feedback from the bolt hitting me.”

            “How sound is this?” Eddie asks.

            He shrugs. “Not very sound, actually. I haven’t tested how fast I can go. We were waiting for you to come over and we were all going to head to Ferris Air together.” He holds out his hands, wiggling his fingers expectantly. “Ready to see how fast I can go?”

            Eddie takes his left while Iris takes his right and they head down the hallway together. “I didn’t know you knew ASL, Barry.”

            He grins cheekily at him. :: _Really? Blue_.::

Eddie feels his face heat up, but his heart swells. It’s so much easier to give nickname signs than to finger spell a name out every time and he’s so happy that Barry’s in on it too.

Out loud he says, “I don’t. Iris told me yesterday about what happened to you two and that you learned ASL to help out. I didn’t want to be the odd one out so I sat down and learned a few things over the night.” He laughs at the twin-surprised looks. “Apparently my brain functions at a faster rate too. I’ve got high retention too.”

Iris smacks his shoulder. “Don’t become a show-off,” she warns. “We’d have to take you down a few pegs.”

He kisses her lightly. “Never,” he promises. “Anything I do, I’ll do for you guys.”

It takes about four hours to get to Ferris Air, two hours longer than it should. Cisco kept forgetting something then Barry forgot something, Caitlin finally just ignored anything Cisco said about going back and drove straight through.

Cisco and Barry stay in the trailer as the rest of them set of the equipment, Dr. Wells and Caitlin directing them where to place everything. Iris heaves up something that should be too heavy for her, five pounds heavier than the weight she could lift nine months ago. Eddie blinks in surprise at her, mirroring her shocked look.

He’s distracted from saying anything when Cisco comes out of the trailer with Barry close behind wearing a skin-tight bike suit that shows him off _very_ nicely. Eddie has to swallow and remind himself of Barry’s preferences…but, hey, that doesn’t say anything about looking, does it?

“Whenever you’re ready, Mr. Allen,” Dr. Wells calls out.

“Do you really think he can go that fast?” Caitlin asks.

“Yes I do, Dr. Snow.”

Eddie gives Barry a thumb up when he looks back and Iris blows him a kiss. Barry takes a deep breath and gets himself in position. A minute of silence goes by then he _runs._

He stumbles back a bit from the force, grabbing Iris to keep her from falling. His jaw drops as he watches his boyfriend race down the track so fast he’s a blur of red and crackles of yellow. Cisco’s shouting mph, and he’s going faster and faster and _faster._

Then there’s a pause where he seems to lose his thoughts and it’s obvious he doesn’t see the barrels in front of him. He’s a second from smashing into them when Iris throws up her hands and a sheen of something forms around the barrels. Barry smashes into what could be a force field, it gives a little under his weight then pops right out, and he goes flying in the other direction, arching through the air.

Eddie lurches forward, putting up a hand, and everything just kind of slows down as Barry hovers in the air. He stares at his boyfriend and moves his hand upand Barry moves up with it. He drops his hand slowly, Barry’s feet touching the ground first then he’s racing back over with a more dignified stop.

“I don’t think I’m the only one the accelerator affected,” Barry says, sounding breathless, staring at the both of them.

Iris is looking at her hands to Barry to Eddie then back to her hands. “Yeah, I think you’re right on that part.” She starts bouncing excitedly. “I’m the fucking Invisible Woman!” She throws her hands in the air. “I don’t know if I can turn invisible, but I can do force fields, this is amazing! There’s so many applications of this.”

“I guess I’m…who has telekinesis in Marvel comics?” Eddie asks, his own excitement welling up like a bubbling spring.

“I’m Quicksilver?” Barry offers, grinning.

[ _Oh. My. God_ ]

Iris cups her hands and a light sheen distorts them, like her force field is forming right there. Eddie tries to poke her skin and he hits a hard wall. She expands her hands out and Eddie is forced to take a step back as the field bumps into him. He narrows his eyes at her and moves his fingers, wondering if his telekinesis reaches through a force field.

She yelps when her leg moves on her own, the force field disappearing as she falls to the ground. Barry races to catch her, hefting her up to his chest.

“No cool!” she yells at him, but she’s laughing.

His own laughter is interrupted by his phone ringing. He lets Cisco and Caitlin clamor around his boyfriend and girlfriend as he answers it. “Thawne.” Oh, he’s never been so happy to be off desk duty.

“There’s been a bank robbery,” Joe says. It’s amazing Singh assigned them to be partners after Eddie revealed one of his two soulmates is Joe West’s daughter about two months into the coma. “Witnesses are saying there was a storm inside, bring an umbrella.”

…and there goes his good mood.

“Be there in a little bit.” He hands up and faces everyone. “I don’t think we were the only ones affected by the particle accelerator,” he announces, deliberately echoing Barry. “Call it a hunch, but things are about to get a whole lot weirder.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Iris, Barry, Eddie: First Words Soulmark
> 
> Caitlin, Ronnie: the word is b/w until you meet your soulmate then it's color, then b/w when one of them dies. (of course, Ronnie's not dead. His soul is just muffled by Martin Stein's right now, when he starts thinking of Caitlin more she'll start seeing flashes of orange (like the color of fire) )
> 
> Cisco, Hartley: they have matching 'tattoos'. When they're both alive it's black, when one dies it's red.


End file.
